Serving a Pollution We Love: Next Chef's Day at Casa Talia By Tiago, Sep 18-21

Good restaurants are my absolute weakness, especially when they're new, and that's why we gleefully found ourselves seated at Casa Talia by Tiago (yes, again), at the latest Chef's Day media lunch.

Unlike last time, Michelin star chef Corrado Michelazzo designed and cooked this entire lunch for us himself. For starters, a delightful glass of sangria was paired with Gillardeau oysters and honey wasabi. The oysters, from France, were so fresh that it made you wonder if they had magically flown from the sea onto the table.

Next was green apple soaked in vodka and finished with caviar; scallops with salty zabajon and summer truffle; and tuna carpaccio with smoked caviar. There was also the fusion dish of ravioli carbonara with summer black truffle and duck breast, combining Italian flavors with a quintessentially Beijing dish.

Our favorite, however, was the mixed cod fish with sea urchin sauce. The white, umami fish was covered with creamy and sweet green urchin sauce as well as a large dollop of orange caviar. What took it to the next level was the caviar, which gently pops in your mouth: just so damn tasty. If I could score this one, I would give it 20 out of 10. This one couldn't even be toppled by the Australian Angus 300-day grain-fed Tomahawk steak, a Tiago signature dish.

To clean our palate, we were then served a bloom salad with flowers, which smelled like roses and was decorated with small yellow and purple flowers. If you were to guess that this was a light, boring salad, you would be totally wrong. Something different was waiting to be discovered with every bite: rose oil, mayonnaise, peppermint, oregano, and other spices mixed well and provided a complex taste overall. This one went to show that you should never judge a dish by its cover.

The first dessert we had was simply called "Pollution," inspired by Beijing's weather, which, shall we say, has left quite the impression on Michelazzo. In the chef's eyes, pollution is apparently a mixture of chocolate mousse and cookies covered with a liquid nitrogen vanilla ice cream. If this is what pollution looks like, then bring on those pesky PM2.5 particles.

We wrapped the meal with the signature nitrogen tiramisu, which Michelazzo made in front of us. This was less like cooking, and more like performing magic. The lady fingers were soaked in enough espresso and balanced with the same crispy nitrogen ice cream used in the previous dessert but this time added to a mound of marscarpone cheese. This one disappeared in as little time as it took to make.

Don’t get jealous if you missed out on Tiago's latest Chef's Day, dear readers, as the regular dishes here are also amazing, and besides, Michelazzo flies to Beijing every month for to conduct his ongoing Chef's Day series. The next event is slated for the evenings of September 19 and 20, hosted at either Casa Talia (Sep 19, call 8409 4009) or Tiago (Sep 20, call 6438 8772). Dinner is RMB 398 per person (without wine), or RMB 498 per person (with wine).

More stories by this author here.

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos: Tracy Wang